Living after the war: A drabble series
by HufflepuffKat
Summary: Set after 'A pacifist and a serial killer'. The war is now over but that doesn't mean everyone is getting along. Nor does it mean that there is any shortage of adventures for our Cybertonians. A drabble series telling tales of various events after the war.
1. Silence

**Hello! This is my newest fic following after my last one; 'A pacifist and a serial killer'. If you haven't read it, don't worry, you still can read this fic, however reading the previous fic would make understanding current character relationships, especially surrounding Deepdrive (a character introduced in the fic) much easier.**

 **As this is a drabble series, I would be more than happy to accept requests in the reviews, so if you want to read a chapter on something particular, please tell me in the reviews!**

Silence

When Smokescreen arrived on Earth and discovered that he was too late to join the fighting, he had to admit that he was at least a little bit disappointed, but none the less he was cool about the truce with the Decepticons.

No more desperate fighting for food and supplies, no more need to worry about friends disappearing, and even better, no more patrol duty. They were now pretty much overstaffed with medics, and at least one of them wouldn't yell at him if he did something stupid and hurt himself.

It was a little weird to Smokescreen how well Optimus and Megatron were getting along, but that was to be expected. Optimus Prime was _Optimus Prime_ , Smokescreen assumed the mech could do anything, even uncrazy Megatron himself.

The only problem Smokescreen had was that everything was boring now, and Smokescreen felt so useless as a newbie that didn't have a clue what was going on half the time, he had only been here a human week, and everyone had been too busy to train the newbie enough to do an actual job.

So, when Smokescreen was offered a job in assisting someone who was searching for the remaining Iacon relics, he jumped for it.

Admittedly, he didn't actually understand the encryption that Alpha Trion had used when he had encrypted the database, but Smokescreen knew with absolute certainty that he knew the relics better than anyone else; which one was which, what they could do, how to use them, and (sometimes from personal experience) what not to do if one wanted to avoid major accidents.

Smokescreen was a little put off when he was told that the mech he would be helping was a Decepticon, but hey, it had to be better than doing nothing all day.

Smokescreen made his way uncomfortably through the nemesis, an occasional vehicon passing by him and giving him a friendly wave. He knew he missed a lot while he was gone, but the friendliness shook him.

He arrived at what appeared to be the room that he was supposed to meet his new temporary partner before he could even knock on the door, it opened seemingly by itself.

Confused, Smokescreen hesitantly entered the room. Taking a look around the room, Smokescreen internally groaned when he saw Soundwave silently typing at a monitor.

"Wait. I'm partnered up with you?" Smokescreen asked, hoping that he was mistaken. Soundwave didn't acknowledge the question, continuously typing at the monitor.

Smokescreen took a step closer to get a better look and could see that Soundwave was definitely decrypting the Iacon database.

"So…" Smokescreen started, not sure what he was supposed to be doing, "What exactly am I supposed to be doing?"

No reply, only the sound of continued typing.

Smokescreen sighed, "That's right, I think I heard that you don't talk from someone, is there something that you could um… point me to?"

Still nothing.

"Can you even hear me?" Smokescreen now asked annoyed.

Smokescreen was left without his answer, as Soundwave still refused to answer him.

"Fine then… I get I'll just… sit and wait till something comes up." Smokescreen grumbled, sitting against the wall. If he wasn't being told what to do, then he could just do what he wanted.

Waiting was exhausting. Smokescreen had been sitting and waiting here for megacycles- he had checked his internal chronometer, twice. Still nothing from Soundwave. Waiting, waiting, before he knew it, Smokescreen found himself falling into recharge.

…

Smokescreen was started out of recharge by the sudden opening of the room's door of the room and a small dark figure entering.

"You two have been in here all day, I don't care if I have to get Megsie to _drag_ you out, but you two are coming with me to eat something!" Smokescreen heard Deepdrive's 'mom voice', as the children called it. He nodded, sleepily and got himself up.

He heard Deepdrive sigh, "Well, 'Wave did you make any progress?"

"Affirmative." Smokescreen heard a voice he was unfamiliar.

"That's good, I'm glad to hear it," Deepdrive said in reply. That's when Smokescreen realized something.

"Wait! You can talk?!" He asked, turning to Soundwave, annoyed and confused.

"Of course, he can, 'Wave ended his vow of silence when the war ended. Why?" Deepdrive asked innocently.

Smokescreen growled.


	2. Chain of command

**Hey! Thanks everyone for reading so far, right now I have more time than what I usually would so I have decided to make responses to reviews in my chapters when I can.**

 **AutobotGuy710: First off, thanks again for your continuous support! I'm glad you liked it, I will try to keep the humor up** **J**

Chain of command

That morning, Ultra Magnus' debriefing on was interrupted by the sounds of sirens. Ultra Magnus had already been made aware of the truce between the two rival factions, so he did not turn into combat mode at the sounds of sirens.

Actually, his debriefing had almost been complete, Optimus was just about to inform him about individual members among the Decepticon ranks, which could obviously wait till after whatever crisis this was, was over.

Optimus read over the alert message, and grimly read aloud the main details on what was going on. Firstly, there had been an accident when some vehicons had been transporting some energon through a ground bridge, causing an explosion on both ends. On the bridge's side, the Spacebridge had been damaged, which was a massive problem that needed immediate attention, and on the mine's side, communication was down, but it was almost certain that the mine had collapsed.

Optimus took a moment to weigh out his options, and Ultra Magnus could understand why. The majority of Autobot and Decepticon forces were currently on the Nemesis, which was on the other side of the Spacebridge, and were now trapped there. All that was left on Earth was Optimus, Wheeljack, Ratchet, a Decepticon medic Ultra Magnus hadn't met yet, and Ultra Magnus himself.

"Ultra Magnus, I am trusting you and Deepdrive to rescue and recover any fallen vehicons in the mines while the rest of our forces work on fixing the Spacebridge, I'll comm. Deepdrive over, and you can rendezvous with her there." Optimus instructed, and Ultra Magnus nodded and went through the Autobots' groundbridge over to the mine.

Ultra Magnus was not sure what to expect of Deepdrive, he had never met them, and Optimus hadn't briefed him on them either. He was aware that they were a medic, as he had overheard from Ratchet earlier that a Decepticon medic was on world helping out at another mine.

There was also the fact that they were Decepticon. He had well accepted by now the current truce between the Autobots and Decepticons, but from past experience, Decepticons were morally dark characters, and Ultra Magnus found that he could quite trust them.

Only a few moments after the groundbridge closed behind him, it reopened and a black femme with large servos and mismatched pedes came out.

"Hey, you're Ultra Magnus, right? I'm Deepdrive, nice to meet ya. I would love to greet you properly and all but we've got eighteen vehicons down there and we can't waste any time talking. So let's hurry to it." Deepdrive said.

Normally, Ultra Magnus may have preferred a soldier who wanted to go straight to work, but this femme's lack of respect was appalling. Ultra Magnus decided to give her the benefit of the doubt though, as she may have been misinformed of his rank, being a non-military officer.

"Deepdrive, I am your superior officer, I will be giving the orders here." Ultra Magnus said firmly.

Deepdrive looked confused, backing up his theory, "I'm not sure that's how this works, I mean, I'm a Decepticon medic…"

Ultra Magnus sighed, "I have been made aware that our military forces have been merged, therefore so has the chain of command, you are not a lieutenant, so as the Autobots first commanding officer, I outrank you."

Deepdrive still looked like she disagreed, but rolling her optics she said, "Okay then, what are your orders?"

"Sir, you call your superior officers sir." Ultra Magnus growled frustrated. This felt like Wheeljack all over again.

Deepdrive chuckled, "I don't even call _Megsie_ sir, what makes you think I will you? Look, I'm okay with following your orders so we can help my boys _trapped_ in there but don't push it."

Ultra Magnus scowled, this Decepticon was mocking him, and he'd be damned if he'd let her get away with it.

"Deepdrive, I will not allow you to-" He was interrupted by the sounds of vitals on Deepdrive's scanner, he sighed, this would have to weight. He started to pull away boulders in the direction of the life signs.

Deepdrive was a good medic, Ultra Magnus could at least give her that, and the vehicons obviously adored her, but her blatant rudeness and disrespect for the chain of command were too infuriating for such things to count.

She never addressed him properly, ignored him completely when she was working, and on one occasion even _threatened_ to permanently turn off his voice box when he had tried to pull her away from one of her patients.

For the time being he allowed it, considering that the present situation wasn't appropriate for disciplinary action, but as soon as all the vehicons had been recovered and on the surface, he addressed her.

"Deepdrive, your insubordination today was inexcusable, be prepared to face disciplinary action upon coming back to the base."

"Insubordination? I did what I had to do, because I behaved the way I did, not wasting time speaking to you, all eighteen vehicons today are still alive." Deepdrive growled back.

Ultra Magnus glared at her, vaguely aware of a groundbridge opening up behind him, three tall mechs walking out, good, her superiors should see this. "That is no excuse, you should always, no matter the situation, follow your superior officer's orders! It didn't matter if their lives were on the line, you should have answered me."

Deepdrive's faceplate went dark, glaring right into his optics, she shouted, "Slag you!"

Ultra Magnus had had enough, this femme had mocked him, disrespected him, _threatened him_ , and so far, had yet to respond to reason, she didn't appear to fear disciplinary action, so he supposed maybe a physical response would teach her.

Ultra Magnus, without thinking, landed a punch on her chassis, sending her back, and immediately loss sense of the ground below his feet.

Surprised, he struggled, before discovering that his attacker was Soundwave, who was holding him high with his tentacles menacingly.

"Striking Deepdrive: Bad idea." Soundwave spoke coldly in his monotone voice.

Optimus winced, "Soundwave, put Ultra Magnus down, we can discuss this back on base."

Deepdrive grumbled, sitting herself up, small dent on her chest which really wasn't helping anyone, "Yeah 'Wave, sure, his an aft, but damaging him is just going to give us medics more work. And you should offline him either." She added at the end as an afterthought.

Soundwave made no response, only tightening his grip on Ultra Magnus.

Deepdrive sighed, "Megsie, can you help us out here?" She asked. Megatron shrugged, but he didn't even try to hide the smirk on his face.

Deepdrive forced herself into a stand. "Why didn't I see that coming." She mumbled.

"Sorry 'Wave." She said suddenly, swiftly extending one of her tentacles and attaching it to the back of his helm. Seconds later, his grip loosened and he fell into recharge, Megatron catching him.

Ultra Magnus stared at Deepdrive, dumbfounded.

"What?" She asked, "Does that break your rules on code of conduct too?"


	3. Dammit Starscream!

**AutobotGuy710: Glad you're enjoying everything, and yes, don't pick fights with ex-gladiators. Soundwave also has fewer losses than Megatron and Optimus in both missions and combat in the show.**

 **Reality Rejection Service: Definitely not a good idea, especially this medic. (She has friends in high places) I hope this doesn't sound like shameless self-promotion, but have you read my last fic? I haven't seen your username before so I'm just curious.**

Dammit Starscream!

*During the events of the previous chapter*

Starscream could tell that something was going on, he had to, it was obvious. He had seen more than once Autobots and Decepticons communicating without violence in just the last month. They had to have formed an alliance of some kind…

This was bad for Starscream. Very bad. Before when the two teams had been fighting each other, they had been too busy to go after him, but now it was only a matter of time, and Megatron would have his helm as a trophy, he was sure of it.

There was also the matter of energon. He was running dangerously low.

He needed to do something.

He had an idea, it was stupid, and he would almost certainly not survive it, but he was running out of options, and as much as he _hated_ Arachnid, she was the only other neutral left.

There was only one problem- other than the fact she was probably going to kill him. She was currently in stasis on the Autobot base.

How to get there and set her free? Starscream was glad that his _brilliant_ mind had come up with an idea.

He just needed to divert everyone's attention.

Luckily for him, he had already found the location of the Decepticons space bridge- also the only space bridge on Earth.

It was all too easy to take advantage of the Vehicons' reputation for being completely useless. Even without a T-cog he took down them down and staged an accident, and just as he planned the Autobots came to the rescue.

Now that the Autobot and Decepticons were allies, they no longer had their guard up, and to Starscream's great pleasure and their stupidity, they all had left the base and kept their groundbridge open, allowing him to sneak through.

What he would have done in the past to know the location of the Autobot base, such information would have earned him a place back in the Decepticon ranks, but now it was all worthless.

Starscream couldn't waste any time getting souvenirs, he had to focus on completing his mission and getting out of there before the Autobots came back.

Running through the halls, he opened several doors, to thankfully find the one room he was looking for.

He smirked walking in, glowering over Arachnids shocked face as she was frozen in stasis lock.

"Oh, how much I would just love to leave you in here, trapped forever, but, desperate times…" Starscream tore open the stasis pod.

Arachnid was momentarily confused, before smirking, "Starscream, we meet again, maybe this time I will tear out your spark!"

Starscream backed up, servos in front of him, "Arachnid, as much as I would love to fight you, a lot has changed since you were put into stasis, the Decepticons and Autobots have joined forces now, if either of us hopes to defeat them, we will have to work together."

Arachnid cornered him against the wall, "And what use do you think that you could pose to me, I have my very own insectacon army."

Starscream smirked, "Good luck with that, considering they're back on Cybertron. I know what's going on Arachnid, I have useful information, and a place for us to make our base."

Arachnid stopped to consider, "All right then, partner."

Starscream's smirk grew, proud of himself, before remembering where he was, "Right now though, we have to leave, the Autobots will be back soon, and we are not yet ready to face them."

Arachnid nodded, "Agreed."

Starscream lead the way out of the base through the groundbridge, only to come out face to face with Optimus Prime, who stared for a moment shocked, then glancing to Arachnid, optics forming a glare. "Starscream! What have you done?" He asked.

Starscream smirked, "Probably the best move I've made in years." He taunted.

Arachnid used Starscream's banter as a distraction and shot out her web at Optimus, taking him by surprise and sticking him to the ground. The other two Autobots came to attention and attacked back at the two, but really it was more of a one on one battle, as Starscream was without his T-cog was no match for any competent fighter and Ratchet was more focused on freeing Optimus.

Ducking for cover behind a console, Starscream took the time to notice that the Spacebridge was working again and now opened to the Nemesis, he turned back to Arachnid, who was fighting of Wheeljack and shouted, "The spacebridge is back online, now would be a good time to call upon that army of yours!"

Arachnid smirked and shot a web at Wheeljack, just managing to make a hit, before taking a moment to take back control of her insectacons and summon them here.

During this time, Ratchet finished freeing Optimus, and Optimus got a solid hit on Arachnid, knocking her back.

Suddenly, waves of insectacons burst out from the Spacebridge. After a moment of indecision, Arachnid made a call.

"Retreat!"

And in a matter of moments, they had all evacuated the building, leaving Optimus, Wheeljack and Ratchet alone as Megatron, Soundwave and KnockOut came out of the Spacebridge.

Megatron locked eyes with Optimus.

"We need to talk about this."

Optimus nodded, "But first it may be a wise decision to collect two of our officers that are out there and unaware of what just happened."


	4. Energon goodies

Optimus nodded, still seeming too shocked to form words for the time being, and Megatron's gaze was pulled towards a black blur that was charging towards the predacon.

Deepdrive stopped a few feet short of the predacon, offering him a few small glowing spheres, "Hello Mr. Predacon, I'm Deepdrive and aren't you the coolest." She cooed, and suddenly the room was now filled with an entirely different kind of shock.

Even the predacon seemed surprised as he took a moment to sniff the spheres before eating them, Deepdrive pulling out more from the inside of her servo and offering them again. "Aren't you a good boy."

Bulkhead spoke up again, "Are those energon goodies?" he asked, Deepdrive nodded, focus still on the predacon.

"Where the pit did you get those, we searched you when you got here?" He asked.

Deepdrive smiled lightly, "I have a secret stash that I've been hoarding, yes I do, yes I do."

LINElineLINE

Later Megatron and the others, excluding Deepdrive and Shockwave who were still with the predacon, were in the Officer's mess hall eating energon.

Bulkhead spoke first, "So, who's up for finding Deepdrive's stash of energon goodies?"

That gained everyone's attention quickly. Everyone liked energon goodies, and none of them had had any since before the war.

Arcee pondered, "I'm in, but where would we even start?"

KnockOut joined in, "Well, the stash may have originally been on the Nemesis, but we can't cross out the Autobot base either, she could have moved it."

Bumblebee nodded before asking, **"How big could this stash be anyway?"**

Megatron turned to face the group properly, "Considering that she requested that her med-bay be in an abandoned goodie factory before Cybertron… My guess would be a lot."

They turned to Megatron in surprise not expecting him to join in.

Arcee nodded, "Well that narrows it down at least a little bit, where ever it is, has to be large enough to store a large stash."

Dreadwing also decided to join in, "That still doesn't narrow it down too much,"

Soundwave's monotone voice shocked everyone, "Previous statement: false. Deepdrive's time missing during the meeting: Two point three cycles. Taking Deepdrive's maximum speed into account: Stash location limited to these possible locations." Soundwave highlighted sections of the ship on his visor in red.

Wheeljack smirked, "You're helping us out to get back at Deepdrive for what she did earlier, aren't you? I heard 'bout that." He spoke referring to how Deepdrive had forcefully put Soundwave into recharge earlier. Soundwave didn't respond.

"That is if she hasn't moved it already," KnockOut pointed out.

Smokescreen shook his head, "Deepdrive wouldn't be able to carry it all by herself," he said remembering her small frame.

KnockOut chuckled, "Because Deepdrive is unable to convince to convince the vehicons to help her." He said sarcastically, "Isn't it obvious by now that they all love her?"

Ratchet snorted, remembering Deepdrive cooing over her vehicon patients in the med-bay, and them all beaming at what he considered hollow affection.

Optimus also surprised everyone by joining in, "But wouldn't that mean revealing the stash's location to the vehicons?"

Ultra Magnus followed suit, "From what I've been informed, she may be willing to offer some to them to keep them quiet."

Soundwave spoke again, "Negative. Presence of predacon: Increases Deepdrive's motivation to ration energon goodies. Alternate suggestion: Stash possibly transferred to area vehicons do not have the authorization to access." Soundwave highlighted more areas on his map.

Optimus had an idea, "Soundwave, could you search for energy signatures matching the energon goodies?"

Soundwave nodded, before highlighting in green another section of the ship on his map. Everyone got excited for a moment until Dreadwing shook his head.

"That's Shockwave's lab, where he keeps the predacon, Deepdrive's probably there feeding him some of the goodies right now. She must be keeping them somewhere shielded from Soundwave's scans. She seems to have taken a lot of care in hiding her stash." He said. Soundwave considered this for a moment, before removing a few sections from the highlighted area.

Arcee smiled lightly, "Can you blame her?"

Optimus and Megatron smiled at each other, before turning back to the group.

"Well then, let's begin searching the highlighted areas," Megatron started.

"We shall split into these groups…" Optimus continued.

LINElineLINE

Everyone returned back to the mess hall in shame. They had all found nothing. They were all soldiers, and none of them had even found a single clue. All the areas highlight on Soundwave's map had been ruled out, leaving them all dumbfounded on what to do next.

It was Megatron who proposed the next idea, "Soundwave, why don't you spy on Deepdrive so we can catch her collecting the goodies from the stash herself.

Soundwave nodded, ejecting Laserbeak from his chest and sent her out to search for Deepdrive, displaying the video footage on his visor.

Laserbeak found Deepdrive walking through the halls and managed to follow her without being caught, unfortunately, it didn't last long as when Deepdrive turned a corner she saw Laserbeak on the edge of her vision.

"Hey 'Beak, have you been following me?" She asked smiling. Everyone on the other side of the feed dropped in resignation.

Laserbeak chirped back at Deepdrive.

Deepdrive narrowed her optics in mock suspicion, "Have you heard about the energon goodies? Fine, I'll give you some, but you'll have to promise not to tell the other's where the stash is."

Suddenly, everyone perked up with hope, eager to see the stash's location, before the video feed suddenly closed off.

"What!" Megatron roared, slamming his fist on the table in front of him.

Bulkhead just stared, completely shocked, "Did, that just happen?

Arcee had to smirk a little at the irony, "Laserbeak got bribed. If only we knew that was even possible sooner."

Optimus, who had been pondering, spoke up "Then perhaps we should send someone who cannot be bribed.

LINElineLINE

The kids were a little disappointed that the first time they had been invited on board the nemesis was so that they would spy on Deepdrive for everyone. They couldn't complain too much though, this was all way too awesome. They were on the nemesis, orbiting Cybertron, galaxies away from home.

They definitely couldn't complain.

Following Deepdrive was easier than they thought it would be. As in it was no problem at all because on sight Deepdrive had picked them up and gone on about showing them a predercon or something.

As cool as things were so far, the predacon was definitely the icing on the cake.

"Is that a dragon!" Asked Miko, star struck.

Deepdrive looked down at her, "Would you like to feed him?"

LINElineLINE

Jack, Rafael and a stunned Miko walked into the officer's mess hall.

"It's in the lab with the dragon," Jack said simply, in a good mood.

"Predacon." Rafael corrected, to which Jack shrugged.

They all stared at the kids. "You're kidding," said Arcee. "She hides the energon goodies, in Shockwave's lab?"

"Yep! And she let me feed some to the Dragon! It was awesome!" Miko beamed.

"Dragon?" Asked Bulkhead, confused.

KnockOut tilted his head, "That doesn't make sense, she hates Shockwave, why would she allow him access of all people?"

Shockwave unlike the last few times this was discussed was now in the room, and stated blatantly, "The adult appreciation of flavored energon is illogical."

The Cybertonians in the room just stared at Shockwave in shock, while the children just stared confused.

There was silence for a few moments.

"You know, I'm beginning to understand why someone like Deepdrive would hate you," said Wheeljack.

Shockwave replied unaffected, "With opposing personalities it is only logical for conflict."

Bonus:

The team of Autobots and Decepticons and three human children entered Shockwave's lab checking for signs of Deepdrive. When the all-clear was given, Jack pointed to a cabinet behind the predacon. They made a move towards the cabinet, only to hear a loud roar and be pushed back by the predacon's tail. Seeing the issue, the quickly decided that coming back with Shockwave would be the best option if they wanted to keep their limbs.

As they turned around to leave, they were stopped with the image of Deepdrive standing at the doorway, a disappointed look on her face.

"Um..." Bulkhead began, looking at the others.


End file.
